


Oh, You Didn't Know?

by SHOOT050313



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, F/F, IronStrange didn't know Pristine was married, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:35:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23414650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHOOT050313/pseuds/SHOOT050313
Summary: Tony Stark and Stephen Strange have been dating for over a year, and now it's time to tell their family. Things go smoothly until the one and only Pepper Potts knows more about the doctor than she should. Everyone's surprised- especially Christine.Inspired by a post made by @funkylittlebidiot on Tumblr.link:  https://funkylittlebidiot.tumblr.com/post/189698558278/i-love-you-3247-funkylittlebidiotI saw the post last night and immediately wrote this... just finished editing it so here we go.
Relationships: Christine Palmer & Stephen Strange, Christine Palmer/Pepper Potts, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 4
Kudos: 79
Collections: One Shots





	Oh, You Didn't Know?

**Author's Note:**

> This is completely unedited. I will return and do that later, but I needed to get this out of my head and into the world. Thanks.

##### 1\. Tony

"Hey! Pep, I have someone I want you to meet."

"Okay Tony. One minute, I'm just finishing up some paperwork." The CEO was still in her office while Tony and a much taller man stood in the hallway just outside it.

"I'll be in my office, just come in once you're done here." Tony turned down the hallways without a response, leading the doctor behind him to the elevator. "I've been relegated to the labs, but at least it's private, you know?" 

They stepped into the elevator and he pushed the button for the laboratory floor before either of them spoke again. 

"You sure you ready? I know I was saying we keep seeing each other mainly in passing and your scheduled check-ups at the sanctum, but you didn't have to go and decide to tell your whole family in one afternoon." Dr.Stephen Strange watched his boyfriend as he spoke, waiting for him to react in some way- any way- but he stayed unaffected by his words.

Instead, Tony placed his hand on the other man's chest, "Look, I'll be honest. The only reason I didn't tell Rhodey or Pepper before this is because I didn't want to scare you off- they're terrifying, even to me and I wanted to make sure you were sticking around. The two of them and Happy have seen me at my worst and they will do everything in their power to ensure I'm never hurt again- up to and including murdering anyone they deem a threat. I've never felt this way with anyone before, so I was scared to ruin it on my own- no way was I going to let them influence your decision."

Stephen placed his hand over the one on his chest, intertwining fingers with his boyfriend's and giving them a quick kiss as the elevator came to a stop. The dutifully followed the genius, keeping quiet until they were again behind closed doors and the genius began pacing.

"Oh, baby. I had no idea you were so scared- if anything I thought you were scared I would do something wrong and get their disapproval leading to you breaking up with me."

"What? No. I told you- I'm in this. These three people are my family- and maybe the kid- but regardless of how they fell about you they will accept you because you are by far not the worst thing I've ever done. They supported me through the worst things imaginable so listen to me when I say that there is nothing you could possibly do to get them to remove you from my life. They wouldn't dare and I will never."

On Tony's last sentence Stephen grabbed his hands to stop his pacing, looking him directly in the eye until he looked up. "Hey! I'm right here okay? Neither one of us is going anywhere- not again." 

"Thank you." Tony breathed the words onto Stephen's lips as he drew him down for a kiss. 

It may have been 30 seconds later or 10 minutes- neither man would be able to remember how long they'd been lip-locked when they were interrupted by the one and only Pepper Potts, who opened the door and stopped short upon seeing the two men. 

"Okay Tony, I could see you're stressed about something and I.. oh." She waited for the two men to step apart in shock and sit down before she continued, " I wanted to let you know I took off the rest of today so that we could talk. But I'm assuming I know most of what you were planning to share."

"Yeah, so Pepper I'd like you to meet Dr.Stephen Strange. Stephen-my best friend and CEO Pepper Potts." Tony gestured between the two of them as they shook hands.

"Pleasure to meet you Ms.Potts." Stephen flashed his surgeon's smile at her before beginning his classic spiel- the same one he gave Rhodey that morning. "I am currently the master of the mystics arts but I was a doctor a-"

"Oh yes, I've heard all about your amazing medical career. But Master of the Mystics Arts? Is that really magic?" Pepper gave the two men a slight smile as she glossed over his past.

"Umm.. yeah. After my accident I went to a place in Nepal called- I'm sorry, can I just ask how you knew who I was? If you don't mind that is." He and Tony glanced at each other, the genius was not concerned at all until he met Stephen's eyes. They both turned to the CEO in sync to see her response.

"Oh yeah, sorry. You worked with my wife there. I thought you knew." Tony's jaw dropped and Stephen's face crinkled up at her admission. Seeing the confusion she amended her statement, " Christine Palmer-Potts? We got married back in 2008."

"You got married the year I was kidnapped!"

"You and Christine are married!" 

Both men seemed slightly enraged by the news, but Pepper expertly called them down with a stern look. "Yes, we got married when you went to Afghanistan, but we had planned it to be the day after you left. We had no way of knowing you would be kidnapped. I almost called it off, but Christine was sure you would be found so we did it and now it's done. I sent you an invitation, but when I told you "you're invited to my wedding" you laughed and told me to buy myself something nice. So I bought us a penthouse apartment right here in New York City and it's lovely, thank you. And I think Cristine may just have assumed you knew by the time you met or maybe she didn't tell anyone. I know that we were both keeping it on the low. Especially now, with me being CEO of Stark Industries. Can you guys understand that?" 

They nodded silently as Pepper pulled out her phone and walked into the hallway, "Stay in those seats."

##### 2.Christine

She had just walked out of surgery when her phone rang. Immediately seeing it was her wife she answered and power walked outside. "Yeah, babe? You're lucky I just got out of surgery."

"We have a problem." Pepper's voice didn't seem stressed, but her words still shocked the doctor.

Christine sobered up suddenly, "What is it? Did the press find out?"

"No. They met."

"Who? Who met?" Christine's mind raced as she searched her brain for anyone her wife could have been talking about. "No..... no they didn't."

"Yeah... Lunch spot?"

10 minutes later Christine and Pepper met on the sidewalk outside their favorite cafe, Stephen and Tony already seated inside.

"What happened? They were never supposed to meet!"

"Don't look at me. I told you I lost control of that idiot the moment he took off for Nepal and returned at a wizard."

The two women looked at each other for a moment before speaking over each other again. 

"It's okay. They're seated inside in the back and I told them you might take a while so we can gameplan this a bit."

"Wait, so are they _together_ together or have they just met?"

"Tony came into my office the most scared he's been since the Accords business. I came to his office where he told me to meet and walked in on them making out. I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if I hadn't arrived when I did." 

"Okay, I didn't need that image in my brain."

"When did they meet? How long have they known each other?"

"I don't know, I called you before they told me anything, thought you would want to know."

"Okay, It's fine. We'll just go in there and have a nice normal meal between friends."

"Perfect. Let's go." Pepper began leading her wife into the cafe, as the passed through the door Pepper turned over her shoulder and smirked before adding, " oh yeah, apparently neither of them knew we were married at all let alone to each other."

##### 3.Strange

"Excuse me. What!?" The shout rang out throughout the restaurant, causing Tony and Stephen to glance at each other in alarm. 

"Well, I guess they're here. You ready?" Stephen grasped Tony's hand, but before the shorter man could respond Christine Palmer was standing at the table staring both of them down. 

"We have been married for almost 15 years and yet for some reason unbeknownst to either of us, the two closest people in our lives didn't know! I mean, I knew you were both arrogant assholes back then, but now? Come on, guys. I can't believe either one of you." She sat down across from Tony, glaring at them as Pepper made her way over after speaking to the hostess and apologizing on her wife's behalf.

"Tony, this is Christine. Christine, Tony Stark."

"It's Dr.Palmer for both of you."

"Now honey, can we please address the actual matter at hand?" At Christine's nod, she turned to the men, "Alright boys, let's go. From the top. I want exactly zero details left out."

"Except the sex stuff, please leave that out," Christine smirked at the paleness that covered both of the men's faces. 

"Okay, well. Pepper you were actually there when we first met. Remember that day in the park about a year ago? When I was discussing my dreams about the future and stuff? Well, the guy from the portal- the one who found Bruce. That was Stephen." 

Pepper's eye widened as she remembered that day, then her thoughts caught up. "Tony, that wasn't about a year ago. That was almost 2 years ago."

"Yeah, yeah... Sorry Pep. We just didn't want anything to interfere while this was still new. It took us a surprisingly long time to even get to a friendly stage, much less a relationship."

Pepper and Christine rolled their eyes at each other, imagining what they could have done when they first met. 

"So anyway, after we calmed Bruce down and everything I stuck around the sanctum a bit- because I'm curious."

"An annoyance actually." Stephen huffed under his breath at Tony, who carried on as if he never spoke. 

"So I stayed for the remained of the day and every once in a while I'd just kind of find myself there. So It was maybe 3 or 4 times every two weeks I'd be there learning something. And then when Thanos came I was there and after we took him down I stayed at the Sanctum for a month or two just to get back on my feet. That's when we started becoming friends. A few months later I asked this thing out on a date."

"Now it's your turn. How could we not know about this? go." Stephen turned to the married couple, expectant and firm.

"Well, we met at a conference for the hospital back in 2006. I was an Attending at the time, but one of the surgeons- I don't even remember who- invited me to join him so I came and abandoned him the first chance I could and- "

"And I was there as the secretary for Tony, but he didn't really pay any attention to me back then so I just bought myself a nice dress and a chauffeur for the evening. I saw Christine at the bar and joined her. We started talking and I left with her number. The next night off I invited her to join me at a bar for a drink and now we're here."

The two men looked at each other in the silence that followed their short tale. 

"You guys should have known about us if you had bothered to pay any attention to anyone other than yourselves back then, We even have wedding rings and you still never said anything."

"But yours in a silver band, I didn't think it was a wedding ring." Stephen tried to get her sympathy but could tell he failed by her look.

"I'm a surgeon Stephen, do you really think I would get a wedding ring that I couldn't wear in the ER? It's a silver band with a blue and black interweaving pattern that we designed, Pep has a matching one with jewels. Not that you noticed."

"Whoa..whoa. How were we supposed to notice? No offense to either of you, but we each only knew one of you at that time and honestly, things have been crazy recently- at least since 2012." Tony held up his hands in surrender regardless, and the conversation moved into safe topics once they ordered.

##### 4.Pepper

They parted after lunch with a promise to stop by Pepper and Christine's apartment for dinner later in the week. 

After the second half of her day- not void of meetings- Pepper went home to find Christine laughing over a pot of boiling water and pasta. "2 years! They've known each other for 2 years without either of us knowing." She turned to her wife who had frozen in the doorway when she began speaking, "I don't know how I'm supposed to feel. Like, I knew we had been talking about this day for years... they're dating Pep. And neither one of us had any idea." The timer went off just as she finished speaking and the doctor brought the pot over to the sink and drained it, unfreezing her wife who suddenly appeared at her side.

"Hey.. look at me." Pepper helped her wife return the pot to the stovetop and moved the strainer unto the counter "You're not this stressed over that, right? I know we've talked about it for years, but if we think about it... we kinda should have known sooner. If we had let either of them know about us- or y'know _made sure_ they knew, I'm sure we would have known as soon as they met."

"You did know... Tony even said it- you were there."

"That's not fair. I didn't know what Stephen looked like then, and honestly? I was too struck by seeing Bruce again to think about who he was."

"I know I'm being dramatic, I just wish we had known earlier." She leaned into her wife as they hugged. And there they stayed until their phones rang with texts almost at the same time. Their best friends had sent them almost identical text messages.

 **Tony:** So you knew Strange existed for almost 15 years and you never mentioned him once? What kind of wingwoman are you!?

 **Stephen:** You knew that there was a smart, intelligent, handsome, gay asshole that I would have immediately fallen for longer than we've been colleagues and you never introduced us? 

The two ladies laughed and returned to their dinner without responding. Taking some time for themselves before discussing anything else.


End file.
